To Err Is Human, To Forgive Is Divine. Abusive Bosses and Turnover Intention: The Moderating Effect of Employee Forgiveness

Abusive leaders are a nightmare to work under. As expected, employees who are unwilling to face this nightmare anymore resign as soon as the opportunity presents itself. This is a growing concern because despite the good intentions of shareholders and top management to retain high performing employees, the presence of abusive leaders may sometimes go under the radar and still be prevalent within the organization. This complication arises because abusive leaders may only show their ‘true colors’ to their subordinates but hide these abusive behaviors from the higher ups. Thus, it may not be possible to completely root out abusive leadership within an organization. As at the time of writing there is a lack of studies that examine the beneficial moderating effect of employee forgiveness on abusive leadership and turnover intention. The current paper therefore proposes a framework whereby employees who are more likely to forgive their leaders report lower turnover intentions. Because employee forgiveness is a trainable aspect, an important implication of this is that organizations should invest in workshops that teach employees how to properly manage conflict and to forgive and stay focused on the job. Although it may take some time for an abusive leader to be properly dismissed by HR after the issue has reached higher-ups, at least the organization is able to retain its high-performing employees rather than lose them over the short-term.